It has been a long weekend for the Beach Crew. Starting Saturday morning (or rather Friday night), the rowers of Beach Crew had to prepare for the upcoming regattas this weekend: the Newport Regatta and the Head of the Harbor. Hosted at the Newport Sea Base in Newport Beach, the first regatta of the doubleheader weekend was the Newport Regatta. Newport has had a history of cancelling races due to the presence of fog, which obstructs the vision of the rowers and coxswain and makes the course un-rowable due to the potentially dangerous implications.

The Thick Fog in Newport . Photo creds: Scott Morris

This year’s Newport regatta, just like last season’s, was unfortunately cancelled. Groans of frustration were audible when the announcement hit; Long Beach Men’s varsity boat had just put their boat onto the water when the news was given. The early morning drive to Newport followed by the laborious efforts of both the Women and Men of Beach Crew to rig and prepare the boats for the race, not to mention the physical and mental preparation prior to the date, was in vain due to the weather. The regatta, or lack of, concluded the Women’s team’s weekend, but the Men’s team had another regatta the following day: the Head of the Harbor in San Pedro.

Hosted by the USC Boathouse, the Head of the Harbor took place the day after the Newport Regatta, 11/19/17. The course, located in the Port of Los Angeles, is roughly a 5000m head race. Five schools attend this regatta: Long Beach Crew, USC Crew, UCSB Crew, UCD Crew, and SDSU Crew. The following heats occurred and the winners of each heat are shown on the graph below:

Although Long Beach Crew did not win any heats, it was still a great experience; Men’s Novice 8+ was 2nd in their heat, and the Men’s “Lightweight” Novice 4 ended up hot-seating another heat for the first time, while racing against Varsity boats in their heat. The boats immediately ahead of the Long Beach boats were not significantly ahead, which means that the bridge can be gapped with diligent and hard work. As many of the Novice had commented, the improvements are apparent.

Overall, the weekend was an arduous yet hopeful start to the Thanksgiving weekend. With most of the competition for the upcoming season in view, it has become clear to most of the rowers what must be done to stay ahead of, or catch up with, the competition: continue to work hard. Many of the rowers, from all teams, went home for the week off from school, so there will be time to put in work, or to kick back and relax.

The week after the Thanksgiving break is over, Long Beach Crew will have another doubleheader regatta weekend, which hopefully won’t be cancelled due to the weather. A regatta hosted by UCLA will be on December 2nd, followed by the Christmas regatta hosted at the Pete Archer Boathouse on December 3rd.